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Saturday, 7 October 2017

The coolest weather
for the Spartathlon in a long time. It was under 30 and cloudy. The cloudy bit
was great as it meant the relentless sun wasn't beating down on you all day.

I started off near
the back. In fact after I had dropped my
phone and Darren had kindly picked up the 3 pieces and gave them back to me I
turned around and was at the back. Still
no hurry, we had 153 miles to run. I put
my phone back together and shoved it into the small zip pocket in my shorts and
ran on. We wound our way through the
Athens rush hour traffic, which was stopped by the police, at the junctions for
us to cross the busy roads. The first
marathon from Athens to Megara was fairly un eventful. I spent the first hour or so with Jay
chatting and watching my heart rate. We
were accompanied by a rather unfit looking stray dog, who was trotting along
with the stream of runners. I kept my heart
rate under 130 bpm as planned and felt good.

I ran straight
through the busy marathon checkpoint in
about 4:15 The same time as my previous attempt, but my quads felt a lot
better this time. We worked our way up
the saronic coast line toward Corinth and the 81km checkpoint. I hadn't been taking any notice of cuttoffs
and was running on heart rate. My goal
was not to let it go over 130bpm.
Somewhere along this section I saw an American walking, So decide to
have a short walk break and get him moving if I could. He was worried about cuttoffs and the fact we
were chasing them. I didn't really need
to be brought down and he seemed to have given up, so I decided to run on. At the next checkpoint I saw the race referee and looked at my watch. I was 2
minutes inside cutt offs. "I didn't
realise I was that close" I said and ran on. I arrived at Corinth, again
in the same time as my previous attempt, but in much better shape and having
made some time back up. I was now 15 minutes under the cuttoffs. This time I opted to go straight through and
forego the massage. It hasn't ever helped me when I have tried it before, so
why bother? I grabbed a handful of
crisps and raisans and went to leave, when the race referee asked if I was
going to eat and pointed out some bowls of rice or pasta I hadn't seen. I
thanked her and took the pasta, walking off up the road and eating it. Once I had finished I looked around for a bin
to discard the plastic bowl in, but didn't see one. The road was strewn with
litter (not from the race I hasten to add), but I couldn't bring myself to add
to it so carried the bowl quite a way unti I found a bin.

In 2015 this is the
section where it all went wrong for me.
This time I knew what was coming up and what I had to do. It was simple really, from 80km all I had to do is run every down hill and flat and
then I could walk the steeper uphills.
With this in mind I soldiered on from checkpoint 22 at Corinth towards
checkpoint 30 where I was timed out in 2015.
At checkpoint 27 I got my first drop bag and picked up my head torch. It
was just before 7pm so perfect timing as I would need it within the next hour
or so. This time I arrived at CP 30 5 minutes under cuttoff. Exactly on plan. I was feeling so much better. I grabbed some
biscuits and crisps and carried on into the now unknown. I only turned on my headtorch when a car came
towards me so they would see me. I found the night light was enough for me to
see and run on tarmac. Off road I would
have needed a torch, but being able to keep it off left me less tired than I
get following the little white dot from a head torch.

The next major
checkpoint, 35 was Ancient Nemea. My
buffer was slipping and I was constantly being passed by the Spartathlon
officials as they left a closing checkpoint to move on to the next. I would get to a CP with 2 minutes to
cuttoff, grab some food and water then quickly move on. About 1/2 way between one CP and the next the
bag van, and a few other cars would pass me.
They were very encouraging tooting the horn and cheering as they
passed. I would watch them as they drove
on to see if I could see where they stopped and thus know where the CP was. As
I crested a hill they again passed me.
They went down the hill and turned left.
I looked at my watch I had 6 minutes to cut off. I didn't think I could make it that far in 6
minutes and tears started to well up in my eyes. I started to run as fast as I could. Shouting no, I am not going to get timed out!
As I ran the pain in my quads disappeared and a few tears trickleddown my
face. Untill now I hadnt realised how
badly I wanted this! I got to the CP
with 2 minutes to spare, quickly grabbed some food and moved on.

The next major check
point was 47 mountain base. In truth its not at the base it is 1/2 way up the
mountain, but it is where we leave the road and go up the short sharp trail to
the top of the mountain. I got to checkpoint 37 just as it started to rain. I
had left a clean t-shirt and a rain coat here. Perfect. I decided to put the tshirt on under the one
I had on and wore the raincoat. The tarmac turned to gravel. I turned on my
headtorch and ran on. I was later told that the dog, remember the dog from
paragraph one? Was seen here, still
running. I hope she finds her way back to Athens in time for next year.

I was still very
close to cut offs and by now the referee and CP crew who were also moving
forward to each CP were cheering me in, making sure I was fed and water and
pushing me on. They were fanatastic, but
my time started to slip. I arrived at CP 43 2 minutes over cutoff. They let me push on. CP 44 I was now 7
minutes over cut off, again they let me push on. As I walked up the road I could see the
mountain. The cloud was down below the top and it was raining quite hard now
too. I wondered how safe it would be to
go over. I'm told the path is narrow and slippery. The Greek mountain rescue volunteers place
themselves up the route for safety. By
now I was probably in last place, so I was hoping they would follow me up and
keep me safe. I passed another runner and tried to encourage him. Sometimes you
can push harder if you have someone to talk to and take away the thought of any
pain. He didn't speak any English and
didn't want to move any faster. So I
pressed on. By the time I got to CP 45 I was 15 minutes over cut offs. This was too much and my race was over. I had to give over my race numbers and sign a
declaration that I was finished. I then got on the minibus that would take me
and 4 others to the death bus. Where I
promptly fell asleep and woke up in Sparta.

154 km or 95.6 miles in 19 hours and 25 minutes.

In ultra running you
have to learn to beat yourself up and run trough the pain. In the Spartathlon,
it's like Fight Club. Without giving away the plot. Although I can't imagine
anyone over 18 hasn't seen the film. You have to learn to beat yourself up to
the extreme.

Friday, 17 June 2016

The
ACTN3 gene contains instructions for making
alpha-actinin-3. Alpha-actinin-3 is a protein associated with fast twitch
muscles. I.e. the muscle sprinters, long jumpers and weight lifters use
for their explosive powers. You inherit this protein via your DNA from
your mother and your father. All Olympians have inherited this protein from at
least one parent with one known exception who like 18% of the population has
inherited a gene variant from both parents that doesn't make this protein.

I have had a DNA
test and my ACTN3 gene doesn't make the protein, meaning I have inherited a
variant from both of my parents that lacks it. In all the studies I
have read there is a general consensus that the alpha-actinin-3 protein gives
athletes about a 3% improvement in performance in explosive sports. There is
also a theory that the opposite may be true too, in that the lack of this
protein is predominate in endurance athletes and the lack of it seems to help
this end of the sporting spectrum. There is, though more research needed as the
link is tenuous at the moment.

Now let's say I was
a 5km runner and I was lacking this gene and lets also say I want to get
faster. If you look at a typical park run the winner is usually around sub 18
minutes. So a top amateur runner can run a 5km in 18 minutes (or less but let's
keep the numbers simple) I lack
alpha-actinin-3 so therefore I would be 3% slower. 3% of 18 is 0.54 which
equals 32.4 seconds. It is therefore
still possible for me to run my 5k in 18:34.4.
This would put me in the top 3 at a lot of parkruns. I therefore can't blame my genes for not
running a sub 20 5k yet.

I have always
believed it's hard work to get where you want to be and your genes have little
to do with this. Most people believe it's your genes that give you your IQ,
your athletic ability, your inability to lose weight, but blaming or praising
your genes for your short comings or 'natural abilities' is wrong. It leads you
to not putting in the effort required to get where you want to be. Most
'natural' athletes, musicians, chess players, etc etc have spent countless
hours and hard work honing their craft.
Children of musicians often end up as musicians themselves because they
had access to instruments from the day they were born.

It took 10 years to become an overnight success

If you want to run
faster, don't blame your genes. Get out there and train properly. Yes you have to do those hill repeats and those
intervals.

If you want to speak a
foreign language stop saying I don't have that sort of brain, start believing
and start learning, we all have the right sort of brain if we want to do it.

If
you want to lose weight, be honest with yourself and don't blame the 'fat' gene
for the chocolate biscuits you just ate.

Tuesday, 20 October 2015

At the weekend I ran the A100. As it was 3 weeks after Sparta and my quads blowing up I didn't have any expectations except that I didn't expect to finish!

The whole 21 and 1/2 hours I was waiting for my legs to give up but they didn't. My quads ached from time to time, but I tried to ignore them and keep running. After Sparta I did some reading and apparently, even though you think slowing will rest the quads and get you back on track it is the wrong thing to do. You really need to run through it. I also know that if I start walking for too long I never get running again. So I try to keep running even if I drop to 9 minute kilometres as I know at some point I will speed up again. I do of course walk the steeper hills still.

The race is 4 x 25 mile out and back spurs. During the first 25 miles I wondered what I was doing and was trying to think of a reason to stop, but I couldn't find one. On the second leg at mile 36 I went flying down a hill landing on my right elbow and knee and winding myself. I walked the last mile and a 1/2 to the turn point, thinking this was my reason to quit. I got some wet wipes and wiped the mud off, there were no cuts, just a scratch on my elbow. I turned to the guy at the checkpoint who was helping me and said ' I can't quit can I, it's just a scratch.' He of course said no. So I left for the return leg. I was a little worried my knee may have taken a knock during the fall, but it was fine and by the time I got to the cross over point at mile 50 I had forgotten all about it. So now I knew I would finish, whatever this race threw at me wasn't going to stop me. It wasn't going to let me have a decent enough excuse to stop!. I had 19 hours left to do 50 miles and 15 hours for a sub 24. I was even thinking about a sub 20. It was definitely doable at this point. The last 50 miles went without incident and I slowed as expected. Returning on the last leg I met Emily looking a bit lost. She had somehow gone in a circle and was heading the wrong way. I remembered her passing me a while back. We joined up and I showed her the right way back to the river. By now I had settled for sub 24 in my head and that was easy with a walk. However we teamed up and ran together the for last 10 miles and this helped me run a bit more than I was prepared to do on my own. Chatting and running made the time go by and we soon finished.

I enjoyed the race and it has made me wonder what I could do if I trained for it and didn't do it off the back of another silly season of too many races too close together. So next year is all down to the Sparta raffle. If I get in it's only Sparta and If I don't I have a race calendar to work out. A100?